Rob Ford 'highly unlikely' to seek injunction to block council from further stripping him of powers, mayor's lawyer says

A lawyer representing embattled Toronto Mayor Rob Ford said Sunday it was “highly unlikely” he would seek a court-ordered injunction to block Toronto city council from moving forward Monday with a motion to further diminish the mayor’s power.

In a special meeting, council is expected to vote to, among other things, slash the mayor’s budget and staff to the levels of a regular city councillor — an action that could infringe on Mr. Ford’s provincially mandated duties, said George Rust-D’Eye, a prominent municipal lawyer recently hired by the mayor using personal resources.

But the prospect of finding an available judge on Monday morning and convincing them that proposed action would cause “irreparable harm” was highly unlikely, Mr. Rust-D’Eye said, adding that he was waiting on word from the mayor Sunday night before officially axing the injunction idea.

On Friday an overwhelming majority of council voted to strip the mayor of his emergency powers and revoke his ability to hire and fire the deputy mayor and standing committee chairs. But Monday’s more wide-reaching motion could prove to be contentious, according to some veteran city hall observers.

“Call it for what it is,” Mr. Ford said about city council in an interview with Fox News on Sunday. “Have I made mistakes in my personal life, on my own time? Absolutely. But that’s all [city councillors] have got … If they wanna get nasty, we can get nasty and I can start digging up dirt.”

While city council is entitled to remove powers that have been bestowed upon the mayor by municipal bylaws, it cannot take away a short list of duties laid out in the provincial City of Toronto Act — which include his role as head of council and CEO, as well as the responsibility of representing the city at “official functions.”

Monday’s motion seeks to remove all the powers not prescribed by provincial legislation and delegate them to deputy mayor Norm Kelly. The proposal would oust Mr. Ford as chair of his own executive committee, strip him of the ability to sit and vote on any standing committee, while also slashing his budget to that allotted to a city councillor.

But by doing so, Mr. Rust-D’Eye warns that council could be acting illegally if such measures impede the mayor’s ability to do such things as represent the city at official functions.

On Sunday, Councillor John Filion, who drafted the motion to “stabilize an extremely chaotic situation,” said the wording could be changed if he received advice from lawyers suggesting the motion, in its current form, could put council in legal hot water.

While Mayor Ford and his lawyer considered seeking the injunction, Mr. Rust-D’Eye said he has yet to grasp the full impact the motion would have on Mr. Ford’s capability to do his job.

The mayor met with Mr. Rust-D’Eye on Saturday, in between “a number of other responsibilities” over the weekend — which included the taping of his new Sun News TV program and interviews with Fox News and, reportedly, CNN.

While Mr. Ford heeded organizers’ requests that he not participate in the Toronto Santa Claus Parade, the mayor did attend Sunday’s CFL Eastern Conference final at the Rogers Centre, despite no official invite from Toronto Argonauts head office.

A court challenge after Monday’s meeting remains a possibility, Mr. Ford’s lawyer said. In council Friday, Mr. Ford claimed taxpayers lamented that it would cost taxpayers “an arm and a leg” when he fights the decisions in court.